Willie Mullins was left in tears after his son Patrick guided the 33-1 shot Nick Rockett to win a hugely emotional Randox Aintree Grand National victory on Saturday.
The most successful amateur jockey in racing history crowned his career with a dramatic success in the world’s most famous steeplechase where his father saddled the first three home.
Mullins, 35, beat off the defending National champion and topweight I Am Maximus by two and a half lengths, with another 33-1 outsider Grangeclare West in third.
Another of Willie Mullins’s six runners in the race, Meetingofthewaters, finished fifth with only the 13-2 favourite Iroko disrupting total Irish dominance by filling fourth place.
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Even by the unparalleled standards that have seen Willie Mullins reconfigure the standards of jump racing success over the last decade in particular this was an unrivalled display of dominance on the sport’s biggest stage in modern times.
Normally Mullins presents a notably composed and urbane public face but interviewed on ITV just minutes after watching his son pass the post first, the 68-year-old was all but unable to comment.
“That was some result. It’s lovely to be able to give your son a ride in the National, but to win it, it’s unbelievable,” he said, choking back his emotions.
It was his third Grand National after Hedgehunter 20 years previously and I Am Maximus last season, although the significance of the family element to this latest success was lost on no one.
Quarter of a century after Ruby and Ted Walsh combined for a father and son National with Papillon, the famous old race’s capacity to tug at the heartstrings appears undimmed no matter how successful the central players.
It was also hugely emotional for Nick Rockett’s English owner Stewart Andrew, whose late wife Sadie died from cancer in 2022.
Originally from Mullins’s home village of Goresbridge, she was able to watch Nick Rockett run his very first race just days before she died.
The horse matured into a Grand National contender on the back of victories this season in the Thyestes and the Bobbyjo Chase in Ireland before delivering a fairytale success at Aintree.
“It’s everything I’ve dreamed of since I was a kind,” said Patrick Mullins. “It sounds a cliche but when I was five or six, I was reading books about the National and watching videos of the likes of Red Rum, and to put my name amongst them is incredible.
“He just a brilliant horse. He’s not very big and one of the smallest in the field but he’s a great ride,” he added, before pointing to how he had matched his cousins Emmet and David Mullins who have also enjoyed National glory.
Mullins, an integral part of his father’s team but also an accomplished racing writer, has set himself the target of riding 1,000 winners as an amateur, although there’s already no doubt as to which will take pride of place.
He is the 33rd amateur jockey to win the National and the first since Englishman Sam Waley-Cohen won on Noble Yeats in 2022.
The outcome continued Irish dominance of the Liverpool spectacular with horses trained in this country winning five of the last six renewals. Nick Rockett is the 31st National winner trained in Ireland in the almost 180-year history of the race.
It’s 42 years since the then Mr Willie Mullins, champion amateur rider, won over the famous fences himself on the Foxhunters winner Atha Cliath. That horse was trained by his father Paddy. That the family wheel came full circle in the National itself was all but overwhelming for him.
“This is the summit for me – I don’t think anything can be better than this. I never thought it would happen, and here we are,” Mullins said after recovering his composure.
“To put your son up on a Grand National winner ... What a special day for him, as a jockey and as a person. To win a Grand National as a trainer – wow, how wonderful. To have the two combined – I can’t explain it. I can’t comprehend it and I find it hard to take in,” he added.
I Am Maximus ran a huge race only to be just outstayed in the closing stages.
“No excuses really, he’s run a huge race again. He took me through the race better last year, probably,” reported his rider Paul Townend. “I’m just sickened to be beat!”
There was a total of 16 finishes from the 34 runners. Three horses fell, including the fancied Irish hope Perceval Legallois at Valentines first time round.
Broadway Boy fell when in the lead at Valentines on the second circuit and was being assessed by vets after the race, although he was able to walk on to a horse ambulance. Celebre D’Allen was pulled up before the last and was also being assessed.
Kandoo Kid fell and brought down Appreciate It, Duffle Coat unseated Danny Sutcliffe at the third, while 13 were pulled up.
Nick Rockett was dismounted after passing the post but was reported fine by connections after his Herculean effort on a warm day in Liverpool.
The Mullins one-two-three has also reinvigorated the race to be champion trainer in Britain.
Having become the first Irish-based trainer since Vincent O’Brien 70 years previously to lift the cross-channel title a year ago, Mullins is now firmly back in the race to chase down the current leader Dan Skelton.
The half-million sterling first prize (almost €600,000) combined with the hefty sums for horses in the first 10, including the Mullins-trained Minella Cocooner in seventh, will have Skelton looking anxiously over his shoulder with three weeks to the end of the British season at Sandown.
“It looks like the British championship might be on again. I think we’ll have to have a real go now,” said Mullins.
Whatever the outcome of that race, it’s hard to imagine any other result ever topping the 2025 Grand National for the sport’s most dominant figure.
Both Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead were out of luck in the National but earlier on the card each secured Grade One success.
Honesty Policy, in JP McManus’s colours, landed the two-and-a-half mile novice hurdle under Mark Walsh to score for Elliott, who opted not to run his star stayer Teahupoo in the later Mersey Hurdle due to the going.
Teahupoo’s owner, Robcour, nevertheless won the race with Hiddenvalley Lake who proved too good for last year’s winner Strong Leader. The De Bromhead horse filled in perfectly for his stable companion Bob Olinger, also owned by Robcour, who won the Stayers at Cheltenham.
